Duo of UK Film Council-backed films in Sundance line-up
Two films backed with Lottery funding through the UK Film Council will screen at the Sundance Film Festival (21-31 January 2010), the leading showcase in the US for independent films.
Mohamed Al Daradji’s Son of Babylon and Sam Taylor Wood’s Nowhere Boy have been selected by Sundance from a record number of films submitted from around the world. Both films have been supported with development and production funding by the UK Film Council.
Son of Babylon is a UK/Iraqi film directed and written by Mohamed Al Daradji (Ahlaam), which tells the tale of a young Kurdish boy and his grandmother as they travel through Iraq searching for their father/son in the wake of Saddam Hussein's fall from power. Starring Yasser Talib, Shazda Hussein, Bashir Al-Majid, Son of Babylon will have its international premiere at Sundance and will compete in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition.
Son of Babylon is a multi-national collaboration between the Sundance Institute (US), the UK Film Council (UK), Screen Yorkshire (UK), CNC (France), Hivos, Doen, Nederland Fond and Rotterdam Media Fonds (Netherlands), Pyramedia and ADACH (UAE).
Nowhere Boy is the debut feature from renowned British artist/director Sam Taylor Wood, written by BAFTA-winner Matthew Greenhalgh (Control). Set in Liverpool in 1955, the film sheds light on the early years of Lennon (Aaron Johnson), who since the age of five has been raised by his controlling Aunt Mimi (Kristin Scott Thomas). When he learns that his mother Julia (Anne-Marie Duff) lives only a mile away, he meets her and is instantly bewitched by her vitality and love of rock’n’roll. Nowhere Boy will receive its US premiere at Sundance Film Festival.
Nowhere Boy is an Ecosse Films production in association with Film4, the UK Film Council, NorthWest Vision and Media, Lip Sync Productions and Aver Media. Icon Film Distribution will release the film in the UK on 26 December 2009. HanWay Films is selling international rights and The Weinstein Company has US rights.
Other UK films selected for Sundance this year and having their world premieres are: Chris Morris’s Four Lions and Rob Lemkin and Thet Sambath’s Cambodia/UK production Enemies of the People, both competing in the World Dramatic Cinema Competition; and Lucy Walker’s Waste Land, which will compete in the World Cinema Documentary Competition. Two new films from British director Michael Winterbottom will also have their world premieres – The Killer Inside Me and Shock Doctrine (co-directed with Mat Whitecross).
John Woodward, the UK Film Council’s Chief Executive Officer said; “It’s great to see that for the third year running, UK Film Council backed films have been selected for such a key festival for independent film in the US. Son of Babylon and Nowhere Boy are two very different films which the UK Film Council is proud to have backed from development through to production and are really representative of the exciting range of independent filmmaking in the UK.
“Selection for Sundance can launch new film talent, really boost international sales potential, seriously enhance a film’s profile, as we saw last year with the Lottery-funded Man on Wire for example, which went on to achieve Oscar success.”
For more information, visit ukfilmcouncil.org.uk.